Wall-mounted cabinet

ABSTRACT

Wall-mounted cabinet comprising a body ( 1 ) on each side of which is arranged a linear actuator ( 4 ). The linear actuator comprises a spindle ( 6 ) with a spindle nut, where the spindle is driven by a reversible electric motor via a transmission. The spindle nut is attached directly or indirectly to the side of the body ( 1 ), such that the body is lowered or raised in dependency of the direction of the revolution of the motor. The construction has the advantage that the internal of the body is completely clean for mechanical parts which lowers and raises the body. Moreover, the actuators only take up minimum space on the outer side of the body.

The present invention relates to a wall-mounted cabinet comprising a body and at least one linear actuator for lowering and raising the body.

From GB 2 061 700 Don Joseph Anthony is know a wall-mounted cabinet comprising a box open at the bottom with a shelf arrangement, where the lower shelf constitutes a closure for the box. The shelf arrangement is in the sides guided by linear guides and can be raised and lowered by one linear actuator located inside the cabinet in the middle against the back plate. The actuator takes up relatively much space in the cabinet and leads at the same time to that the cabinet is not particular cleaning-friendly. When food or sanitary articles are stored in the cabinet, it is all together not particularly conductive to have an electro-mechanical arrangement inside the cabinet. From GB 1 433 004 Michael John Hawker is know a similar cabinet where the linear actuator is also mounted inside the cabinet. Opposed to the above this cabinet has a front door in the nature of a sliding door, which automatically opens upwards, when the shelf arrangement is lowered. The opening of the sliding door is achieved in that it is connected with a wire to the shelf arrangement. The structure thus requires a relatively large clearance above the cabinet. From DE 34 09 990 A1 Hermann Dröge brackets for top cabinets are known comprising a back plate intended for securing to a wall. The back plate is mounted with a spindle part and motor and further a guide at either side on which is mounted a plate for a top cabinet. When the motor is started the top cabinet is raised and lowered. The construction takes up relatively much space behind the cabinet, so that it will be positioned at a long distance from the wall. A similar construction is known from DE 32 15 572 A1 Hermann Dröge, where a channel for the spindle is constructed in the back plate of the cabinet. For these constructions it is a fact that they are exposed to a large moment, which is transferred through the guides and the actuator. The moment is the weight of the cabinet multiplied by the lever arm, which approximately is half as long as the depth of the cabinet. Further, the construction may be exposed to a moment in the sideways direction if the cabinet is unequally loaded in the sides, which is quite common, e.g. a stack of heavy plates may be positioned in one side and perhaps a light bowl in the other side. Thus the cabinet will be exposed to a moment in the sideways direction, which can cause it to capsize.

DE 298 07 238 U1 Pro Reha discloses a bracket for top cabinets, where the bracket comprises a steel plate at either end which are mutually connected with supporting profiles for the top cabinets. In either end of the bracket is a slanted linear actuator of the type disclosed in WO 96/12123 Dietmar Koch (OKIN). The top cabinets thus move in a slanted path out from the wall and downwards. The construction has the disadvantage that the actuators are mounted on a wall abutting the bracket.

The object of the invention is to avoid these drawbacks associated with such cabinets.

This is achieve according to the invention in that there is mounted a linear actuator at either side of the body, that the linear actuator comprises a spindle with a spindle nut, where the spindle is driven by a reversible electric motor via a transmission and that the spindle nut is attached directly or indirectly to the side of the body, such that the body is lowered or raised in dependency of the direction of the revolution of the motor, and that there is a control device and an operating device for controlling the actuators. By arranging a linear actuator on the exterior of the body of the cabinet at either side of this, then the sanitary issue about the interior of the cabinet is in advance eliminated and the cabinet can without problems be used for storage of food and sanitary articles. Moreover, the body will also on the whole could be designed and fitted as a normal cabinet in an element cabinet arrangement, such as an element kitchen. With an actuator at each side the risk of capsizing of the body is also minimized compared with a single centrally arranged actuator. Moment loading perpendicular to the cabinet on the linear actuators can also generally speaking be eliminated by placing these in a plane through the centre of gravity of the body, which typically is located midway inside the body. When there is two actuators these can in principle be half the size, i.e. slimmer, as when there only is one actuator. This results in that each actuator does not take up so much space and further when the spindle nut is attached directly on the exterior side of the body the space the actuators takes up can be further reduced.

In an embodiment is used a linear actuator is of the type where the spindle projects perpendicular from the housing containing the electric motor and the transmission. The actuator can be arranged such that the housing reaches across the top of the body while the spindle stretches down along the side of the body. Typically there would be sufficient space over the body for convenient arrangement of the housing of the actuator.

Regarding attachment of the actuator to the body the spindle nut is in one embodiment designed for direct attachment to the side of the body. The spindle nut can be designed as a solid block or with projecting flanges with screw holes. Alternatively there could be a steel bracket which is fixed to the spindle nut. In an embodiment the attachment between the spindle nut and the body could be a key assembly fitting, where the spindle nut is designed with one part of the key assembly fitting so that the spindle nut can be clasped onto the other part of the key assembly fitting mounted on the side of the cabinet.

In a further embodiment is the spindle nut connected to a tube shaped rod, which rod is attached to the side of the body. It is noticed that the tube shaped rod is protects and hides the spindle and at the same time prevents grease from the spindle from dripping from below the cabinet. It is understood that besides from the wall thickness the tube does not necessarily need to be much bigger than the diameter of the spindle.

The control unit typically comprises a primary control circuit located in a separate housing, known as a control box together with a power supply which usually is based on a transformer and a rectifier. The operation device may in its simplest form be a toggle switch, but typically it is a small panel with pressure or touch keys. Expediently, the control device is constructed to control the two linear actuators so that these run synchronously. Even though the linear actuator are identically manufactured, manufacturing tolerances and unequal load on these can cause the linear actuators not to run at the same speed, at which the body can run askew and in worst case be wedged. By constructing the control device so that the linear actuators are forced to run synchronously or parallel this problem is avoided. Examples of such a control device are known from WO 02/03526 A2 and EP 1 079 511 A1, both Linak A/S.

An embodiment of the inventions shall be more fully explained in the following with reference to the accompanying drawing. In the drawing is shown:

FIG. 1, a perspective view of a cabinet according to the invention and where an outer shell is shown transparent, and

FIG. 2, a section in one side of the cabinet.

As it appears from FIG. 1 the cabinet comprises a body 1 in the shape of a box which is open at the front and has a first side wall 1 a and a second side wall 1 b. The body can be designed as a common element cabinet for an element cabinet arrangement and be equipped with a front door. Around the body 1 is an external cover shell 2, which is open at the bottom. Between the side walls 1 a, 1 b of the body 1 and the side walls of the cover shell 2 there is arranged linear guides 3, which could be common guide rails e.g. drawer rails of the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,478,393 B2 Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.

For lowering and raising the body 1 there is arranged a linear actuator 4 on either side of the body 1, the linear actuator comprising a housing 5 with a reversible low voltage DC-motor and a transmission. At the end of the housing 5 there is a spindle 6. On the spindle there is a spindle nut to which is connected a tube shaped rod 7 with a square cross section.

As it appears from FIG. 2 the linear actuator 4 is secured to the top of the cover shell 2 by means of angle braces 8, which with screws 9 are screwed onto the side of the housing 5 of the actuator and with screws 10 are screwed onto the top of the cover shell. The tube shaped rod 7 of the actuator is with clamping brackets 11 around these secured to the side of the body 2. The clamping brackets 11 have sideways protruding flanges by means of which they are secured with screws 12 to the side of the body.

On top of the cover shell 2 there is located a control box 13 containing a power supply and a control device for the two actuators which is cable connected to the control box. It is noted that the control box alternatively could be mounted on the underside of the cover shell 2, so that it does not take up space on the cover shell. The cabinet will thus appear as having plane surfaces and immediately look like a conventional cabinet.

The invention has the advantage, that there could be used in itself known standard linear actuators e.g. dealt with in WO 2004/100632 A1, Linak A/S. Another example of an actuator is known from WO 02/39848 A1 Linak A/S. For mounting at the top of the cover shell existing screw holes in the housing could be exploited. However more essential, this actuator are rather noiseless. Moreover, it is also essential that the squeeze protection known in connection with these actuators can be exploited directly, c.f. for instance the squeeze protection dealt with in WO 03/056976 A1, Linak A/S which is based on a piezo element. 

1. A wall-mounted cabinet comprising a body and at least one linear actuator for raising and lowering said cabinet, wherein a linear actuator is mounted at either side of the body, the linear actuator comprises a spindle with a spindle nut, where the spindle is driven by a reversible electric motor via a transmission, and the spindle nut is attached directly or indirectly to the side of the body, such the body is lowered or raised in dependency of the direction of revolution of the motor, and including a control device and an operating device for controlling the actuators.
 2. The wall-mounted cabinet according to claim 1, including a housing containing the electric motor and the transmission, and wherein the spindle projects perpendicularly from the housing.
 3. The wall-mounted cabinet according to claim 1, wherein the spindle nut is directly attached to a side of the body.
 4. The wall-mounted cabinet according to claim 1, wherein the spindle nut is connected to a tube shaped rod, which is attached to a side of the body.
 5. The wall-mounted cabinet according to claim 1, including a linear guide for the body.
 6. The wall-mounted cabinet according to claim 1, wherein the control device is constructed to run the linear actuators synchronously. 